THE BIG SQUEEZE

Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street JournalCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Like many business travelers, Sharon Bair, an Atlanta asset manager, often raced through airports with a cell phone clamped to her ear.

It seemed like a good way to get lots of things done at once. Until, that is, she saw another business traveler, a man clad in a suit and tie, apparently so obsessed with work that he nearly trampled a frail old woman in his mad rush to get off a plane. The man made no apologies, nothing, Bair says. His behavior so horrified her that she put her cell phone away. Now, she says, she slows down to "open my eyes, ears and heart" while trekking through the airport, taking time to help lost travelers.

Based on more than 100 e-mails and letters from readers, opinions about this trend toward using every waking nanosecond to accomplish something--or two things at once--are sharply divided.

While slightly more than half of those who wrote reported that blending work with family or personal pursuits is helpful, a large minority declared the trend dangerous and damaging to relationships. "You must be absolutely out of your mind" trying to manage every spare minute; the resulting lifestyle is simply too rushed, wrote Edward Little, of Claremont, Calif.

Dozens of readers reported at least some success with near-superhuman feats of integration. James Wong of Irvine, Calif., general manager of a truck manufacturer, does isometrics throughout the workday, rotating his ankles and wrists while typing, stretching his calves on escalators and squeezing a hand-exerciser while driving. While jogging, he leaves voice-mails via cell phone for himself, with ideas about work.

Amy Tetervin, a Rapidan, Va., freelance research specialist who works from her country home, sometimes takes client calls while holding horses to be shod by the farrier. Though her clients sometimes ask about the clanging noise in the background, she's delighted with her lifestyle.

Several working moms said they've honed integration skills out of necessity. Lynn Roberts, a New Orleans attorney who works part-time from her home, says she has discussed multimillion-dollar deals by phone "while bathing, feeding, dressing and entertaining my son; while driving carpool; while sitting at the soccer field, playground and pool."

Sara Tucker, an associate director of a California university research center and a mother of three, says she manages to talk on the phone, answer e-mail and use a breast pump all at once.

Others, though, related stories of finding their own multitasking limits. An Ohio reader, an amateur pianist, wrote that he used to prop a portable keyboard on the passenger seat in his car and play, without looking, while he drove. But he stopped after he became so immersed in his music that he unconsciously slowed down to 35 miles an hour on the highway, drawing honks and angry gestures from other drivers. "I reasoned I shouldn't manage my time so closely, or I might be playing harp someday," he writes.

For Dave Jennings, it was the angry glares of fellow commuters that spoiled his effort to work on his cell phone on the train. In addition, the person he was talking to was frustrated at the "pauses, grunts, background noise and jostling sounds as I exited the train in a crowd," says the Naperville manager.

David Dobrindt, a Boston management consultant, plans meetings while running on a treadmill and even did his taxes in a hospital waiting room while his wife was getting stitches in her thumb. Still, he says, "now and then I need to stop, close my eyes and realize that I don't want to miss the most important reason we're on this planet: to have fun. If I find myself getting so stressed I'm ready to kill a little old lady for taking too long to get her change out in line at the supermarket, I go home, have a cold beer and watch a mindless movie."

A few said that while they integrate their lives, they worry about the long-term effects. "Our lives are a constant battle of seconds," writes the head of business development for an Internet startup, whose wife works for an e-commerce firm. "Every second of the day is taken, given or spent before it's here." He worries that he and his wife are letting their two toddlers down by multitasking. He once negotiated a contract by cell phone throughout the process of picking up his daughter at day care and driving home. "I was no more a father than a chauffeur," he says. "Somehow I feel we will pay for this in her teenage years."

Still others say they're simply worn out by all the integrating. Duane Peterson, "chief of stuff" at Ben & Jerry's, writes: "Having spent the weekend toiling in my oxymoronic `home office,' operating computer/modem/fax/cell phone, I'd just as soon trade them all in for the inability to communicate with folks `after hours,' and return to doing business during business hours like my parents did." But, he wonders, "how to put that genie back in the bottle?"